I would guess that most of New England rooted for Connecticut but not having a more direct affiliation with the teams, I like to root for underdogs. But it verified something that Barkley said in an early game a week or so back. Given the choice of having domination from a team in its backcourt or under the paint, he would choose the key/hoop area.

Connecticut outscored Butler by an unthinkable 26-2 in the paint, + 24. Yet Butler made 9 threes and the UConns only one for 27-3 or +24. Amazing, and I do realize that Butler broke a record for a miserable shooting % of .188% and only got 14 more points in addition to the 3s. I'm not professing to be Sherlock Holmes here but the difference was in rebounds which was 53 UConn to 41. Conn didn't have terrific shooting either with .345% but with 12 extra rebounds it explains a bit the dominance in the paint & the 24 more points made under the hoop.

My whole point with this is that, God Willing, Shaq's injury is not serious and JON too gets back into a good playing routine. WE CAN'T DEPEND UPON OUTSIDE SHOOTING ONLY TO WIN BANNER #18. RECALL, AND I HATE TO BRING UP OLD WOUNDS, BUT RAY ALLEN BROKE THE 3 POINT RECORD WITH 7 IN 1ST HALF & 8 FOR 11(73%) TOTAL GAME # 2 PLAYOFFS. BUT IN GAME 7 HE WAS ICY WITH 2 OF 9 I THINK. JUST 3 OR 4 OF 9 AND WE MIGHT HAVE WON DESPITE BEING ROBBED WITH DISPARITY IN FOUL SHOTS. BUT KEY TOO WAS THAT LA ONLY SHOOTING 32% AND THEIR GUY WHO WALKS ON WATER, KOBE, SHOT A PATHETIC 25% (6-24), GOT EXTRA CHANCES & GASOL, BYNUM, KOBE, FISHER & ARTEST ETC. ARE NOT GOING TO MISS 2-3 IN A ROW.

I BELIEVE WE CAN STILL WIN THE EAST IF SHAQ DOES NOT RETURN TO US & I DO NOT WISH THIS UPON THE LAKER TEAM---I DISLIKE ANYONE WHO WISHES INJURY ON AN OPPONENT TEAM'S PLAYERS & I HATE THE LAKERS, BUT IF BYNUM & GASOL ARE RETURNING HEALTHY, WE COULD HAVE 'Déjà vu'Being out rebounded !!!

You're not kidding! I thought of the Celtics the whole time I was watching that game. In fact it brought up some rather unpleasant memories from the past month... Butler could have easily been us. If we stay and get healthy, that won't be the case.